


tiger

by orphan_account



Series: a collapsing multiverse [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bodyswap, Identity Issues, Mirror Universe, Mortis (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Sith Ahsoka Tano, That's Not How The Force Works, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24339709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “'Are you confident in your ability to complete the task?', the Son asks her.It’s a trick question, one which she has long since, through trial and error, learned the answer to. 'I am confident in your teachings to guide me to success', she answers, letting loose a breath of relief at the pleased look her master gives her.'Don’t let me down', he says before the mists warp and Ahsoka once more finds herself lying on a cot in the middle of a battlefield.". . .She has a soul. It is stretched across two galaxies, living two distinct lives that, by all means, were never meant to learn the existence of the other.But for a moment, on cold day in 20 BBY, the distinction had blurred. For a moment, one half had perished, and both galaxies seemed to sing with opportunity.It's three years later.And he has a plan.
Relationships: The Son | Fanged God & Ahsoka Tano
Series: a collapsing multiverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866523
Kudos: 9





	tiger

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to finally be posting this, it's been a blast writing it! I've only written Star Wars fic once, and it was like three years ago, so if the terminology or anything seems off, sorry about that.  
> Also, tags'll be added later on (when I finally sit down and finish writing this), but for now, I think we're good.  
> Both versions of Ahsoka think of and refer to themselves as "Ahsoka". When they're thinking of the other, they'll either say "the Jedi/the deserter" or "the Sith". And this takes place three years after the Siege of Mandalore, so Ahsoka's been out of the Order for four years now (if I'm doing my math right lol), which I guess would put them at about 20 years old?  
> Anyhoo, here's the fic! Hope y'all like it!

The sight of the force-shackles within his grasp stirs a number of emotions within her, bringing forth unpleasant memories to the forefront of her mind as she just barely refrains from baring her fangs at him. 

Months spent locked away in a cage, punishment for some act of insolence or failure or even the most rudimentary of disappointments. On some occasions, he’d force her to wear them even if she hadn’t done anything. It could be as simple a fact of him being bored, but he always came up with an excuse. “It’s a test”, he would say, smirking, as if he knew that even though she likely knew the truth, she would never call him out on it.

Regardless, it’s been years since she’s last been subdued by the shackles, and the thought of being in their hold for even a second causes it all to come rushing back to her. The infinite, suffocating, petrifying loneliness, the kind that buries underneath the skin and wedges deep into your heart like a tumor, the silence, the cold, the  _ helplessness _ . She trusts him with her life, and she would do anything for him. But unlike other things he’s asked of her, she has no fond memories of this room, of these bonds.

Ahsoka looks up at him, anger simmering heavy beneath her skin like magma beneath the ground. “Surely”, she begins, attempting desperately to keep her tone respectful. “You don’t believe her to be a threat.”

The Son meets her scowl with an amused smile, calmly explaining, “Of course not. But if she’s anything like you, I expect her to be a conniving, little insect”. He tosses the shackles at her feet, and Ahsoka, after a moment’s hesitation, sighs and lowers to retrieve them. 

“I don’t expect much of a battle”, the Son continues with a light laugh. “But I’d rather not take the chance of her somehow escaping and poking around.”

Ahsoka nods, eyes narrowed as she grumpily clampses the cuffs around her wrists. Immediately, she feels her connection to the Force stripped and recoils. She feels like the ground’s been pulled out from underneath her, like everything anchoring her has jumped to hyperspace and abandoned her, left her all alone and defenseless.

_ It’s fine _ , she thinks, pushing against the insistent memories of overgrown bush and terror too big for her body. It’s  _ fine _ . She’s prepared for this. And even if she hadn’t, well, it’s not like she’ll be the one that has to deal with it. Not for long anyway. 

"Remember”, her master chastises her, a frown marring his face, as if he can hear the pitiful thoughts prodding at her mind. With his power and her current lack of, it’s not out of the question. “You must be patient and inconspicuous. The success of the mission depends upon it.”

“I know, I know”, Ahsoka says through gritted teeth. She won’t let him down. Not this time. “I know my objective, and I will complete it.”   
The Son nods, taking a seat before her. He closes his eyes, and, after a moment, Ahsoka does, too. They both begin to breathe, one long breath in, one long breath out. It’s like smoking a cigarra, except, instead of taking in smoke, they’re taking in energy. She knows this rather than feels this. But even with her shackles, Ahsoka can hear their heartbeats synching, can hear the way the world goes silent around them. 

One advantage that she will always have over him. Even with her lekku in its current condition, her sense of hearing will always be superior to his. It’s a fact she’s always taken a delight in, even if she’s smart enough to keep it to herself. Ahsoka isn’t so foolhardy as to believe this somehow puts them on an even playing field, but it draws her comfort. A sort of reminder that her master isn’t nearly as all-powerful as he’d like the galaxy to believe.

Ahsoka closes her eyes, listening, intently, as the Son begins to speak in a low, crooning voice, with the words of an ancient language that she doesn’t understand and yet feels she knows intimately.

Despite their being in the deepest channels of the cathedral, there’s a wind surrounding them. Ahsoka can feel it lapping at her skin, can feel her mind beginning to stretch, expand, as it brushes up against that of another.

_ I see you _ , she thinks with a smirk, delighted at the startled confusion that greets her in turn.

She can hear the Son speaking to her, but his voice is muffled, distant, as if he’s from underwater: "Get him to trust you”, he’s saying, his voice a sharp hiss. “I’ll handle the rest.” 

“Yes, Master”, Ahsoka answers. She feels horribly dizzy, but at the same time, she feels invigorated, drunk on the feeling of potential, of the idea of accomplishing such a feat in her master’s name.  _ He will be proud _ , she thinks, allowing herself to feel, amongst the anonymous tendrils of fear and confusion slipping in from the Jedi’s subconscious,  _ happiness _ ,  _ excitement _ . This will be the day that she proves herself to her master, to the universe, that she is a worthy apprentice, that he was right in choosing her all those years ago. 

Her very soul jerks, propelling itself out of her body, and the force comes rushing back into her, like a large glass of water after weeks spent wandering a desolate desert. Ahsoka breathes, and when she opens her eyes, the cuffs are gone.

. . .

In the three years since the Siege of Mandalore, a few things have become abundantly clear. One: Ahsoka’s not built for civilian life. Though she may’ve turned her back on the Order, their teachings have very much been ingrained in her. She’s a soldier, and soldiers simply do not retire. And with the galaxy in various states of disarray after the attempted Order 66, she finds there’s plenty to keep her busy.

And being busy leads her to her second realization: it’s a small galaxy after all. It doesn’t matter which planet she’s on, which star system she’s hyper jumped to, somehow, someway, she almost always runs into a familiar face. In a weird, roundabout way, it’s easier to cross paths with an enemy or enemy-turned-begrudging-ally. At least there, things are relatively the same, and, for the most part, there’s little time or want to discuss the bantha in the room.

It’s when she meets old friends that things get weird. To be specific, old Jedi friends.

So when she’s in the midst of investigating some asshole masquerading as the “New Count Dooku” and finds herself in the crosshairs of a Jedi-sanctioned mission, Ahsoka finds herself conflicted. 

But the Jedi in question is Luminara. Though Ahsoka will never know if Luminara was amongst those who believed her innocence, she has pleasant memories of her time spent with her battalion. She was a calm, grounding presence in a time when war raged heavy and unrelenting. In Ahsoka’s heart, the name Luminara is uncomplicated, merely the name of a woman she once considered a good friend, mentor to another dear good friend. It’s easy to pretend with her. 

That is, until she looks over her shoulder and sees the 501st running suicides behind her. Oddly enough, Anakin is nowhere to be seen.

“He’s been sent away”, Luminara explains, her eyes sad and knowing. “Something about a face returned from the past.” 

A number of faces flash behind Ahsoka’s eyes, but they’re all quickly drowned out by the presence of something prodding at the back of her mind.

She ignores it, as she often does these days. It’s become a frequent thing, one which she doesn’t quite recognize. Strangely enough, it feels like it’s coming from herself, from within.

The thought leaves her mind at the sight of Rex approaching. Rex gives her a small smile and says, “Commander”. Ahsoka gives him a cheekily grin and retorts, “Commander”.

Beside them, Gree rolls his eyes, instructing his own men that they’ve just five minutes before setting out for an ambush.

It’s in the midst of battle, that the prodding becomes more like a stabbing. Her vision swimming, Ahsoka lowers her newly grey light-sabers, shakes her head, and launches her steaming blade through the chest of a battle droid, seemingly fresh off the conveyor belt. She forces herself forward, stumbling in her path as she inhales sharply and suddenly finds herself being snatched out of her body and through time. Ahsoka grabs hold of her head, hissing as she catches a blaster bolt straight in the shoulder, angling her saber to catch the next one and rendering the droid a simmering pile of parts on the ground.

She leans against a boulder, blinking confusedly as Gree makes his way towards her. He’s saying something, his lips are moving, but she can’t hear anything.

_ I see you. _

She blacks out, a fact which, in and of itself, is all manner of horrifying. She’s never blacked out before and certainly not in the middle of a battle. There’ve been moments where she loses herself, finds time becoming a strange fluid concept, but Ahsoka’s never been so thoroughly removed from her senses. Not like this.

Afterwards, during cleanup, Gree continues to watch her, his gaze heavy with scrutiny. Ahsoka assures him she’s fine, only to suddenly stumble in her step and find her feet rushing away from her. Gree grabs hold of her left arm, and Luminara takes her right. Pressing the palm of her hand against her head, Ahsoka pants, taking a step back from them both to flash them a smile. Neither seems convinced.

“Padawan-”, Luminara cuts herself off, her face scrunching with something pained, before she amends, “...Miss Tano. Are you all right?”

“Yes”, Ahsoka breathes. “Just, just a little dizzy.” She moves as if to walk, only to reach out for Luminara and shakily whisper, “I think I need to sit down”.

Within moments, she’s escorted to the medbay, whereupon, Kix immediately guides her to a gurney. Ahsoka takes a seat, her head pulsing as her soul dislodges once more, this time fully vacating her body. She grabs hold of her head, breathing heavily as she does so.

"Commander?” Gree grabs her shoulder. “Commander, are you all right?" 

Rex, Rex is here now, takes a seat beside Ahsoka and softly asks, "Ahsoka?” 

She just sits there, not saying anything.

. . .

When Ahsoka looks up, there’s a slight tint of yellow to her eyes. Rex’s eyes widen as he stares, his brows furrowing as they no doubt return to the Jedi’s normal blue. Ahsoka rubs her temples and blinks, staring out at the three worried faces watching her. 

"You still with us?", Rex asks, aiming for humor when he sounds undoubtedly worried.

_ Weakling _ , Ahsoka immediately thinks with a sense of glee. She will be most happy to drive her saber through his chest, eager to make him the first of her long-awaited carnage. She takes a moment to lower her gaze to her arms, startled at the sight of them; she runs a finger along her forearm, noting the distinct lack of pulsing, black veins, then looks back up, to where her four “comrades” still watch her.

The one known as Luminara, in particular, seems quite suspicious.

That won’t do. That won’t do at all. Ahsoka flashes them a weak grin and chuckles. “Of course”, she answers lightly. “Where else would I be?”

Rex smiles, and Kix rolls his eyes, saying, “You seem fine. A bit dehydrated, though. I’d say you need to start practicing better self-care”.

“Some things never change”, Rex sighs, shaking his head. He turns to Gree then, and his voice drones out as Ahsoka rises to her feet, looking about the room. 

“Master Luminara”, Ahsoka says coolly, approaching her. The woman raises an eyebrow, and Ahsoka wavers, wondering if she’s said something wrong, before continuing with, “Will...Anakin be joining us shortly?”

Luminara just blinks, eyes narrowing as she replies, “As I said before, he’s away on a mission, and it will be some time before he’s returned”.

Keeping her cool, Ahsoka nods, walking out of the medbay with her teeth gritted. Well. That certainly throws a wrench into their plans.

She marches through the crowd of the Jedi’s comrades, ignoring their attempts to speak to her as she searches for a place well-removed from the rest of the camp.

Now that she’s put some space between them, Ahsoka allows herself to flourish in the feeling of the Force returning to her. And not only that but also the feeling of being around people again. Usually, it’s just she and the Son, locked away from the rest of the galaxy in the cathedral. That isn’t to say, of course, that she resents because she doesn’t. She’s grateful that her master was so gracious as to welcome her into his home. It’s just making this transition period a bit more difficult is all.

“Hey, kid.”

Ahsoka slows in her steps, calmly looking out of the corner of her eye as the Captain known as Rex jogs up to meet her. Excuse her. “ _ Commander _ ”, Ahsoka greets with a curt nod before returning her gaze forward. 

_ Confusion _ , followed by  _ worry _ prickles between them, and Ahsoka just barely withholds a shudder. Her counterpart, despite her recent aimlessness, still has an affinity for the Light Side. And with that affinity comes keen sense of empathy, one which differs drastically from her own.  _ Ugh. If I were her, I’d’ve left the Order, too, and I’d’ve done it sooner _ . 

In any case, she’ll have to do something about this connection to the Light. If she’s not careful, she could become more like the Jedi than in just body.

“Gree said you seemed a little out of it on the field”, Rex says, remaining at her side.

Ahsoka bristles, gritting her teeth when she realizes most of the tents are already occupied. And their memories haven’t overlapped enough for her to have gained the knowledge of where the Jedi parked her ship. “Kix says I was dehydrated”, she offers in explanation.

From her peripheral, she can see Rex watching her oddly. “Did you forget where you parked your ship?”

“Of course not”, Ahsoka snaps, and Rex nods, schooling his face into something calm and emotionless. Somehow, that only further enrages her. “It’s just been a long day, and I...don’t feel like going to find it.”

“Right.” Rex scratches the back of his head, then looks over the makeshift camp. “Well, I’ve gotta make a field report, so I’m not gonna be using my tent for a few hours. If you want-”   
“Sounds great”, Ahsoka says, nodding as she looks over the tents stretching before her. “Which one is it?”

“Echo and Fives were playing sabacc in front last I saw.”

She doesn’t await further explanation, allowing the Jedi’s memories to guide her towards the two men. They smile at the sight of her, and Ahsoka nods, disappearing into the tent without another word.

. . .

Waking up, the first thing Ahsoka notices is the fact that she’s alone.

Which, ordinarily, wouldn’t be a problem. She’s spent much of her line alone, has been trained to thrive in both the company of others and in solitude. Hell, the past four years, she’s been more alone than ever.

But this is a different kind of alone. A kind which she has never experienced but only ever heard of and shuddered at the thought of being subjected to.

She groans, suddenly aware of the cold presence of durasteel against her cheek, and looks down, finding a pair of force-shackles wrapped around her wrists.  _ Shit. _

It’s been a while since she’s been kidnapped, the last occasion being two months after she left the Order. By that point, most people had been under the impression that she was still wanted by the Republic. She’d been on the verge of exhaustion, starving to her pit, when a group of wannabe pirates got the jump on her and held her for ransom. It hadn’t been her finest hour, waking up to the sight of a stern but awkward looking Mace Windu cradling her in her arms on the floor of a star-freighter. Even now, she still doesn’t know what occurred between her blackout and her rescue, but Mace had assured her that he’d “handled” it and that he’d be willing to keep it off the books.

She spent three years getting kidnapped, imprisoned, and enslaved every week. But these past four years have been pretty lowkey, so you could say she’s been thrown for a loop suddenly having her free will gone again.

Ahsoka sits up with a groan, staring at her reflection in the shiny durasteel before her. With a start, she finds the lower half of her left lek missing. She has only a moment to lament its loss before her eyes take in the yellow hue of her eyes, followed by the black veins rippling throughout her skin. She stares, deeply confused and unnerved, and draws closer, pressing a hesitant finger against her cheek.

“Ah”, a voice sighs, sending goosebumps up and down her spine. “So you’ve finally awakened. I was beginning to think something had gone wrong.”

Ahsoka snarls, hands instinctively balling into fists. She whips her head around, a low growl emitting from her chest at the sight of the shadow streaking down the wall before her. “You”, she hisses as the Son, uncharacteristically  _ alive _ , saunters towards her. “How are you alive?”

The Son just raises an eye marking at her. “Oh. So you do remember.” He chuckles, rolling up his sleeves before pausing before her. “We weren’t certain you would. That whole fiasco was a bit confusing, particularly from an outsider’s perspective.” 

“I don’t need to remember.” Ahsoka pushes herself up. She may be bound and captured, but she still has her height, and she still has her pride. The Jedi in her, the  _ survivalist _ in her, argues that too much pride could be a bad thing, but she doesn’t listen. She just narrows her eyes and spits out, “I was told all that happened”.

It’s a bluff. In the year following Mortis, she’d badgered Anakin and Obi-Wan about the gap in memories between resting in their shuttle and awakening with a dead Force-wielder beside her. Needless to say, they’d been about as informative as a pile of rocks, but she isn’t willing to admit that yet.

The Son seems to recognize the lie because he just looks at her, smirks, and says, “Somehow, I doubt that”.

Yeah, she’s never been very good at lying. 

Absentmindedly lifting a hand to her damaged lek, she frowns, thinking of the poking presence she’s felt in her mind for the last year or so. Had it been him? More pressingly, her wound isn’t fresh, which would suggest she’s been here for longer than she’d initially realized.

_ Access what you can _ , Ahsoka thinks, forcing herself to calm down and take a breath. She likely isn’t going to get many details, so she should focus on what’s immediate and in front of her. She recognizes her surroundings faintly, like something she’d seen in a dream. Weird but perhaps something to meditate on later.

“You said ‘we’”, Ahsoka eventually says, pleased at the pause the Son gives. She rolls back her shoulders, resting on her haunches as she states, “So you have a partner”.

Her self-satisfaction lasts for merely a moment, stomped out like a cigarra by the splitting grin the Son gives her. “Yes, I do”, the Son concedes, chuckling as if deeply amused. “You should feel flattered. She was quite excited about this little endeavor.”   
“You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t jump for joy”, Ahsoka retorts dryly, tugging uselessly at her bonds. “What do you want with me?”

“Don’t overestimate your worth”, the Son sighs, rolling his eyes. With each step he takes, shadows skitter from underneath his foot, scurrying away like rat-roaches out of the light. “It’s your precious master I have need of, Jedi.”

“Your information’s outdated”, Ahsoka scoffs, delighted in any small victory she can find. “I’m no Jedi, and he isn’t my master.”

The Son just blinks. “Is that so?”, he murmurs, more to himself than anything. “I’ll have to inform her of this when next we speak.”

“And when will that be?”, she asks, but the Son just waves a hand, lightly saying, “When you sleep, of course”.

Ahsoka nods. Of course. He wouldn’t risk speaking with his partner while she’s still awake, for fear of Ahsoka overhearing. “Whatever it is you’re trying”, Ahsoka says, shuddering at the feel of her chopped lekku brushing against her shoulder. “It won’t work. Better beings, including yourself, have tried and failed to bring down Anakin.” The Son doesn’t answer, so she lowers her gaze back to the ground, still befuddled as to her appearance. “You still haven’t explained...this.” 

She looks like she’s been corrupted by the Dark Side itself. Though she has grown disillusioned with the teachings of the Jedi, her connection to the Light Side is still strong, if, admittedly, a bit skewed. She’s met many beings of the Dark Side, and she’s never seen it have this kind of effect.

“And she said you were an intuitive one”, the Son chuckles. “Foolish.” He crouches down to her level, a knowing smirk on his face. “If I were to unbind your shackles, you would know in an instant. The Force here is quite different from the one you’re accustomed to.”

Ahsoka just raises an eye marking. “And where exactly is here?”   
When the Son shows his teeth, he looks like a monster. Like the very monster he had been when he’d taken her and Obi-Wan. Ferocious. Hungry. Merciless and yet thriving on the pain of his victims. For years, he’s haunted her dreams, but this is no dream. This is reality.

“Here”, the Son explains, his voice gleeful. “Is where you and I reign, as master and apprentice.” At the unimpressed look Ahsoka gives him, he chuckles, turning around as he calls out, “Well. The other you, anyway. The  _ better  _ you”.

“Is that supposed to be some sort of riddle?”, Ahsoka shouts after him. When the Son doesn’t relent in his path, panic courses through her, and she leans forward, hissing as her shackles dig cuts into her wrists, and shouts, “What do you mean, ‘the other me’?”

. . .

The first few hours navigating her new body are odd. For one thing, having her lek fully restored, further enhancing her hearing. It’s a start, to suddenly hear the world as she’d been born to.

But even that doesn’t compare to the strangeness that is having people  _ smile _ at her.

It’s not the same as when the Son smiles at her for completing an assignment or when one of their short-lived acquaintances relishes in the thrill of killing alongside the legendary Son’s apprentice. These smiles are...pleasant. Like the kind Ahsoka imagines family would give to one another. 

Kix stops by her tent, just before she’s fallen asleep, and his insistence on a proper check-up is just so bizarre. She’s never quite had someone care about her physical being outside of assignment, and the fact that this sentiment, and many more, seems to extend to most of the Jedi’s comrades is overwhelming to say the least.

It’s frustrating is what Ahsoka eventually decides, once she’s finally managed to pull away from them and retreat up into a tree in the forests Her whole life, she’s been taught that kindness is always a front for selfishness, that allowing herself to be beguiled by its allure warrants a backhand or worse. Her counterpart may’ve allowed herself to be fooled by it, but she is stronger and better than her. She is not so easily misguided.

When she falls asleep, it’s not to a pleasant dreaming but instead to a looming throne. Without preamble, she takes a knee, eyes pointed towards the feet before her as she says, “Master”.

“What have you learned, my apprentice?”, he asks, his voice an echoing boom throughout her subconscious.

A growl begins in the center of her chest, rumbling within her lekku. “Only that he’s on the other end of the galaxy. And deep undercover!” She shakes her head, hands clenching into her fists as she mutters, “I knew we should have planned this better. We barely have enough information to go on, and now, I’m in the thick of it, with no means of carrying out the plan!”

It’s testament to how important the Son’s quest is that he doesn’t immediately punish her. And it’s testament to how draining pretending to be the Jedi is that Ahsoka’s so easily losing her cool. It’s not often that she rants, attributed to the fact that they often result in punishment.

To her relief, the Son doesn’t mention it. “How long will he be under?”, her master instead asks her calmly, a stark contrast to her visceral anger pulsing out into the Force.

"Indefinitely”, Ahsoka replies, crossing her arms over her chest. “But the grandmaster, Kenobi, he will be here within the morning.” That much, she’d gathered from listening in on the conversation of her comrades. It hadn’t seemed a surprise, her being out of the loop. It’d made her wonder, as well as the color of the Jedi’s sabers, how much she hadn’t been able to grasp in her quest to learn everything about her. “How is she?", she wonders, her voice somber. 

Her master just smiles, draping one leg over the other as he sits back in his throne. "As can be expected”, he replies, waving a hand through the air. “Apparently, my counterpart wasn't nearly as cordial to her as I.”

Ahsoka nods. Somehow, that isn’t quite as surprising. Looking over the course of her own life, she can easily see how her counterpart could’ve gone down the path she had. But the life her master leads? She highly suspects it was the only life he could’ve led.

“The Jedi is no longer a Padawan”, the Son suddenly says, startling her from her thoughts. “She’s left the Order.” 

Ahsoka just blinks. “That would explain a number of things.” As well as make things far more difficult. Whilst planning, they’d relied solely upon her counterpart’s close-knit relationship with the alternate Skywalker to assist her in their quest. This certainly complicates matters but not to the point of impossibility. From what she’s seen so far, it’s clear this galaxy is in severe need of mediation. It wouldn’t be so odd for a Jedi, even one that’s self-exiled, to provide assistance in the effort. Why, she was already in the midst of battle when they switched.

As long as she continues to play her role, no one should suspect anything.

“Are you confident in your ability to complete the task?”, the Son asks her. 

It’s a trick question, one which she has long since, through trial and error, learned the answer to. “I am confident in your teachings to guide me to success”, she answers, letting loose a breath of relief at the pleased look her master gives her.

“Don’t let me down”, he says before the mists warp and Ahsoka once more finds herself lying on a cot in the middle of a battlefield.

“Commander?” She blinks, sleepily rubbing her eyes as she glances down from her perch in the tree. Rex is watching her, half amused, half concerned. “Rough night?”

“I guess.” Ahsoka jumps down from her tree, then turns to look over Rex’s shoulder. “The troops ready to head out?”

“Yeah. The general’s just made landing, and he’s awaiting your arrival.”   
She nods, following him back towards the campsite. “Kenobi?”, she affirms, and Rex nods.

He’s quiet for a moment before he says, “He seemed happy to see you, but, you know, we all get it if you’re…”

Ahsoka just smiles, and this seems to startle Rex before a pleased smile settles onto his own face. “Rex”, Ahsoka laughs, gently brushing a lek over her shoulder. “I’m hopeful that today marks the beginning of a new era for the Jedi and I.”

“Oh. Well, that’s...good to hear.” The statement is posed as a question, a fact which makes Ahsoka evermore curious as to the circumstances concerning the former Jedi’s exile.

Ahsoka flexes her fingers at her sides, holds her head high, and nods to herself. Before her, she can see that a new ship has, indeed landed, with the population of the camp having doubled since last night. Amongst the crowd, she senses the presence of another, raking her eyes until she finally finds Obi-Wan Kenobi speaking with Luminara.

_ Obi-Wan Kenobi. _ Well, he’s certainly in better condition than the Kenobi of her universe, although, to be fair, the bar isn’t exactly high.

“Commander Rex”, Obi-Wan greets with a smile, then turns to Ahsoka and says, “Ahsoka. It’s wonderful to see you again”, the words spoken as if they’ve been carefully measured.

But Ahsoka just smiles, folds her hands in front of her, and calmly returns, “Kenobi”.

There’s a moment where he and Rex share a look before Kenobi asks, “I hear you’ll be staying onworld for quite a while”.

“If things turn out the way I’m hoping”, Ahsoka proclaims, brushing past the two men. “Then yes.”

This mission certainly isn’t turning out the way she’d expected. But for all the apparent distance that the deserter’s put between her and the Jedi, the bonds she’s formed with them still seem to exist. She’s counting on them to assist her in her quest for the Anakin of this galaxy.

But until then? She'll have to put on the performance of a lifetime. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's been like fifteen-hundred years, and ya bitch is still not over that Mortis arc😭😭😭.  
> Thanks for reading and let me know you're thinking!  
> Edit: yall, i had already seen Us when I wrote this, but Im just now realizing that this could maybe kinda sorta almost (but not really) be considered a Tethered au👀👀👀, Lupita give me strength🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽.


End file.
